Tess mission has detected three new planets and six supernovae in its first three monthsThree new planets and six supernovae outside our solar system have been observed by Nasa’s planet-hunting Tess mission in its first three months.Since it started surveying the sky in July, the MIT-led Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite project has identified Pi Mensae c, a “super-Earth” that travels around its star every six days, and LHS 3844b, a rocky world with an orbit of only 11 hours. Continue reading...

Through cooking I have learned a lot about science, despite being a chemistry brain-dud. Maybe it can work the other way aroundImperial College London is including cookery lessons in its chemistry degree courses, starting this September. The Introduction to Culinary Practice module, created in collaboration with the chef Jozef Youssef from the Basque Culinary Centre, will allow students to “experience the ambiguities and challenges of translating written instructions into action” (AKA “following a recipe”). There are several reasons why I think this is a great idea, only some of which hold academic weight.I met Youssef several years ago, and he is one of the most absurdly good-looking men I have ever set eyes upon. He looks like a young Antonio Banderas had sex with a Magimix in Zorro’s kitchen. His science-theory-inflected food is extraordinary, too. At the tasting menu I attended, we ate origami pasta, oyster ice-cream and fossilised squash. One course was based on a Mexican folk tale and there was a mushroom dish based around the scent of petrichor. I was like a kid in a candy store. Not a real candy store, obviously, a virtual one, with piped custard aromas and implanted happy memories. Molecular gastronomy gets a bad rap from traditional food critics, seen as “all fur coat, no knickers”, but it’s right up my street. Spherification, emulsions, foams, there’s a Roald Dahl-esque theatre to this type of food that I love. Continue reading...

Research suggests the platform fosters anxiety as we compare ourselves to othersLike many 24-year-olds, Alexandra Mondalek, a fashion reporter in New York, found herself obsessing over social media. Her rapidly growing fashion-focused Instagram account, @hautetakes, was gaining attention, with a little more than 1,000 followers, and it was all she could think about. She wasn’t making money from it yet, but Mondalek wondered if she could reach “influencer” status if she kept at it.“I was putting too much weight into who was viewing my Instagram,” says Mondalek, who started posting photos of the free gifts she received from designers and PR teams, hoping to build her following. “I would worry about how a post was performing instead of making important calls. I felt a certain pressure to make a brand of myself, and there was so much anxiety in that.” Continue reading...

Scientists compared DNA of 10 species and found 24 genes which marked out males that stayed with their matesIt could be a handy riposte for the stalwart commitment-phobe. When challenged on their reluctance to be tied down, half-hearted partners could shrug and claim their neural gene expression profiles made them that way.That is, at least, if research on smaller animals holds true in humans. Researchers who compared the DNA of 10 different species found a common genetic formula which marked out males that stayed with their mates and lent a hand from their less-than-committed cousins. Continue reading...

Seas absorb 90% of climate change’s energy as new research reveals vast heating over past 150 yearsGlobal warming has heated the oceans by the equivalent of one atomic bomb explosion per second for the past 150 years, according to analysis of new research.More than 90% of the heat trapped by humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed by the seas, with just a few per cent heating the air, land and ice caps respectively. The vast amount of energy being added to the oceans drives sea-level rise and enables hurricanes and typhoons to become more intense. Continue reading...

First there was pizza rat, now the egg roll- and avocado-loving squirrels are the city’s latest social media starsName: New York squirrels.Also known as: The eastern gray squirrel. Continue reading...

Longer journeys may exhaust birds, say scientists tracking them off South American coastEvery year, thousands of Magellanic penguins get stranded along the coast of South America – but puzzlingly, about 75% of those that get stuck are female. Now scientists say they have worked out what is behind the gender imbalance: the females migrate further north than males.Magellanic penguins finish breeding in Patagonia in February, and during the subsequent winter months head north, reaching as far as Brazil, in search of anchovies. But every year thousands become stranded, with many airlifted to safety onboard military aircraft. Continue reading...

Scientists also looking at altering colour of kiwis and taste of strawberriesSpicy tomatoes could soon be on the menu thanks to the rise of genome-editing technology, say researchers.It is not the first time experts have claimed the techniques could help to precisely and rapidly develop fruits and vegetables with unusual traits: scientists have already been looking at changing the colour of kiwi fruits and tweaking the taste of strawberries. Continue reading...

UK forensic science regulator warns of shortcomings that could cause cases to collapseLess than 10% of police forces have met basic quality standards for fingerprint evidence, the government’s forensic science regulator has warned.All UK forces were ordered three years ago to ensure their laboratories met international standards for analysing prints found at crime scenes. But only three forces have complied, with almost every force missing a deadline set by the regulator to gain accreditation by November. Continue reading...

The organisers of a major Indian science conference said they were concerned by speakers citing religious texts and ideas at the eventThe organisers of a major Indian science conference distanced themselves on Sunday from speakers who used the prestigious event to dismiss Einstein’s discoveries and claim ancient Hindus invented stem cell research.The Indian Scientific Congress Association expressed “serious concern” as the unorthodox remarks aired by prominent academics at its annual conference attracted condemnation and ridicule. Continue reading...

Our only satellite and our nearest planet appear close together in the night sky this weekend but have little else in commonThis coming weekend, keep a look out for the Moon as it slides past the red planet Mars. The chart shows the view looking south at 18:00 GMT on 12 January. The view will be similar on the days either side of this. Mars is about twice the physical diameter of the Moon but appears so much smaller in the sky because it is so much further away. Whereas the Moon orbits the Earth, and on 12 January will be around 396 thousand kilometres away, Mars is in an orbit that carries it around the Sun. On 12 January, it will be 203 million kilometres away from Earth. In many ways, Mars is intermediate in character between Earth and the Moon. Whereas the Moon is airless and the Earth has a full atmosphere, Mars has a tenuous atmosphere. Whereas the Moon is arid and Earth boasts an abundance of water, Mars shows evidence that water once flowed there but no longer. During 2019, Mars will travel behind the Sun from our perspective. Having been visible since 2017, it will be lost from view in July and return to the dawn sky in October. Continue reading...

Noise which saw diplomats complaining of headaches and nausea could be song of Indies short-tailed cricketThe US embassy in Havana more than halved its staff in 2017 when diplomats complained of headaches, nausea and other ailments after hearing penetrating noises in their homes and nearby hotels.The mysterious wave of illness fuelled speculation that the staff had been targeted by an acoustic weapon. It was an explanation that appeared to gain weight when an audio recording of a persistent, high-pitched drone made by US personnel in Cuba was released to the Associated Press. Continue reading...

Changes will include a mental health overhaul and advances in diabetes careAs the government prepares to unveil its 10-year-plan for the NHS on Monday, here are some of the details we already know about. Continue reading...

Naturalist’s symptoms of diarrhoea, rashes, palpitations and flatulence could have been tick infection, say researchersHe travelled the world studying exotic creatures in dangerous lands, but the disease that marred Charles Darwin’s life may have been caught closer to home as he trudged around Britain collecting insects, shooting birds, and picking up stones, researchers say.The Victorian naturalist who gave the world the theory of evolution is a strong contender for the most famously ill scientist in history. His diaries, notebooks and letters brim with despair over ailments ranging from diarrhoea, rashes and heart palpitations, to vomiting, muscle pain and incessant flatulence. Continue reading...

Things to look out for in the night sky over the coming months, from meteor showers to supermoons21 January Continue reading...

Landing a spacecraft on the far side of the moon is a fine achievement – and propaganda winNasa rejected it as too difficult and costly an undertaking. Last week, China declared “mission accomplished” after landing a spacecraft, Chang’e-4, on the far side of the moon.It was a remarkable endeavour. As the far side of the moon never faces the Earth, mission control cannot communicate directly with the spacecraft, but only via an orbiting satellite. The terrain is more broken and cratered than the near side, so landing a craft is that much more difficult. Even Nasa was impressed: “a first for humanity and an impressive accomplishment!”, the administrator tweeted. Continue reading...

Intrigued by peer pressure or power plays? Our expert suggests novels and psychoanalysis that get a grip on group politicsQ: I am interested in the way people can become morally corrupted in group scenarios. Which books best show how and why this happens?

The story of one family’s struggle with drugs has become a Hollywood film – and is showing others they aren’t aloneNic was a lovely child, though of course I’m prejudiced. I’m his father. According to the external barometers we often use to measure how our kids are doing, as Nic grew up – in California where we live – he was doing great. He was a good student, had good friends and his teachers described him as a leader. Nic did have to endure the trauma of his mother and my divorce (he was four), but he seemed to weather it well. Most important in my mind, he was kind, loving and moral.I found a bag of marijuana in Nic’s backpack when he was 11. It’s not that I was naive about drugs – I knew about the ubiquity and temptation (when I was a teenager I used many) – but Nic was so young. It broke my heart. Continue reading...

Nasa’s first chief of astronomy who oversaw the early development of the Hubble space telescopeNancy Roman, who has died aged 93, was Nasa’s first chief of astronomy. She was the first woman to hold an executive position at America’s space agency and had direct oversight of the planning and early development of what became the Hubble space telescope. This led Nasa to call her “mother of Hubble”.Joining Nasa in 1959, just six months after the agency opened, Roman was in charge of developing a programme of astronomy from space. She travelled the US talking to astronomers in their various universities and listening to their ambitions. She also discussed with them the advantages of observing from space, where there was no atmosphere to blur the view and no daytime to halt the observatory’s work for half the day. Continue reading...

Clive Lewis’s ‘wafer-thin’ majority | A miniature Christmas Carol | Positive news, please | Hope, Derbyshire | Pennsylvania, Gloucestershire | Moon landingYour article on the Labour MP Clive Lewis (‘Switch to green lifestyles must start now’, 2 January) refers to his Norwich South majority prior to 2017 as “wafer-thin”. It was in fact 7,654 in 2015. I was canvassing as the Green party candidate in 2017 and found that the term “on a knife edge” was being used widely. The spin worked. The voters swallowed this myth that they had to vote Labour “to keep the Tories out”. Green and Liberal Democrat voters fell for the two-party story, instead of voting for the candidate they believed in, and Lewis’s majority doubled to 15,596.

US study finds some people needlessly avoid foods while others do not have life-saving medicationThe number of adults who think they have a food allergy is almost double the figure who actually have one, research has revealed.While the study was conducted in the US, experts say a similar situation is also seen in other countries, including the UK. The researchers found that many people with an allergy do not have a prescription for potentially life-saving medication, while others might be avoiding foods unnecessarily. Continue reading...

Imperial College scientists find DNA damage in sperm could be undetected causeMen should undergo tests when couples suffer repeated miscarriages, according to researchers who say the health of the man’s sperm may sometimes be a factor.The focus is usually on the woman’s body when multiple pregnancies fail, with tests usually looking for immune system problems or infection. But a small government-funded study by scientists at Imperial College London suggests miscarriage could also be a result of male issues, particularly if they are not routinely tested. Continue reading...

The rover from China's Chang'e 4 probe separated from its lander on Thursday evening after the probe touched down on the far side of the moon. It is the first spacecraft in the world to achieve a lunar soft landing

Our culture demonises those who don’t work – but maybe it’s time we were more like Homer Simpson and Jeffrey ‘The Dude’ Lebowski, writes Josh CohenIn 1999, crowds of art lovers, many of them baffled, filed into London’s Tate gallery to view My Bed, a work quickly established as one of the most iconic and notorious of our age. Tracey Emin’s installation painstakingly recreated her bed as it appeared after an alcohol-fuelled breakdown, triggered by the end of a relationship. A disordered tangle of used and dirty stockings, towels and sheets, the undersheet spilling freely over the bed’s base, was bordered by the accumulated debris of an exhausted life. This was not a bed of peaceful rest, airy dreams or frenzied coupling, but of illness, exhaustion and despair. The intoxicants and condoms strewn around conveyed not a lively appetite, but a quest for physical and psychic numbness, plunging us into a state the French sociologist Alain Ehrenberg called “weariness of the self”.Ehrenberg diagnosed this weariness as the essential malaise of our time. He described a chronic incapacity arising from a state of perpetual work – not only the long hours spent in waged employment, but the state of permanent busyness induced by daily demands to act and consume. This has been accentuated, since Ehrenberg published his book, by the 24/7 imperatives of online life: follow, like, update, upload, link and (of course) buy. Continue reading...

Project leader echoes Neil Armstrong’s quote after rover’s successful separation from landerChina’s space agency has posted the first photo of its Chang’e 4 lunar rover on the far side of the moon after its groundbreaking touchdown on Thursday.The rover – named Yutu 2, or Jade Rabbit 2 – left the spacecraft, drove off a ramp and began making tracks on the moon’s surface at 10.22pm on Thursday, about 12 hours after Chang’e 4 landed. Continue reading...

Despite much debate in UK and US there is still little agreement over how safe e-cigarettes areSifting through contradictory evidence is common when it comes to choosing the right thing to do to improve our health, not least at new year when many of us promise to leave old habits behind and make a fresh start. One topic that is almost guaranteed to provoke arguments is e-cigarettes. Thousands of research papers have been published about these devices over the past decade. But we do not seem to be much closer to a global consensus on their risks or benefits, and arguably the debate is becoming more entrenched. What is going on?A number of factors appear to be fuelling this, but in 2018 one more than any other seemed to be driving the debate. It relates to the consequences of e-cigarette use by young people, and the extent that youth vaping will lead to smoking. In other words: are e-cigarettes creating a new generation of nicotine users, and will these vapers become the smokers of the future? Continue reading...

Some scientists are beginning to question whether it really was an asteroid impact that led to the dinosaurs’ extinction – instead, they think it may have been a supervolcano in India. Graihagh Jackson investigatesWhen we were children, many of us learned about dinosaurs and their demise. A massive asteroid, larger than Mount Everest is tall, smashed into the Earth, causing chaos in the form of tsunamis, wildfires and earthquakes. Plumes of debris created a darkness so stifling that it caused up to 75% of all animals to become extinct.However, a small group of scientists is questioning this hypothesis and putting forward another theory: volcanism. The Deccan traps in India are home to some of the biggest volcanic features in the world and there is evidence to suggest there was a lot of activity about 66m years ago – the same time the dinosaurs were wiped out. Continue reading...

The history of artificial intelligence is entwined with state and corporate power. It must now reflect those it has excludedPicture a system that makes decisions with huge impacts on a person’s prospects – even decisions of life and death. Imagine that system is complex and opaque: it sorts people into winners and losers, but the criteria by which it does so are never made clear. Those being assessed do not know what data the system has gathered about them, or with what data theirs is being compared. And no one is willing to take responsibility for the system’s decisions – everyone claims to be fulfilling their own cog-like function.Related: Women must act now, or male-designed robots will take over our lives | Ivana Bartoletti Continue reading...

Collision will ‘cause fireworks’ but probably won’t happen for about 2.5 billion yearsAs if battered post-Christmas finances, a looming disorderly Brexit and the prospect of a fresh nuclear arms race were not enough to dampen spirits, astronomers have declared that a nearby galaxy will slam into the Milky Way and could knock our solar system far into the cosmic void.The unfortunate discovery was made after scientists ran computer simulations on the movement of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of the many satellite galaxies that orbits the Milky Way. Rather than circling at a safe distance, or breaking free of the Milky Way’s gravitational pull, the researchers found the LMC is destined to clatter into the galaxy we call home. Continue reading...

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From Pink Floyd’s mental hell to the secret lair of space Nazis, artists have striven unceasingly to sketch the side of the moon China’s Chang’e 4 just reached‘I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon.” These could easily have been the words of the Chinese team behind Chang’e 4, shortly before it set off on its successful journey to the moon’s far side. But as any rock fan will tell you, they were immortalised 45 years ago at the end of Pink Floyd’s track Brain Damage. It was the line that gave their most famous album, The Dark Side of the Moon, its title. And it remains one of the most enduring phrases in popular culture – copied, spoofed and riffed on by generations to come (even Krusty the Clown has a “lost” album entitled Dark Side of the Moonpie).It’s not hard to see why artists have a fascination with the moon’s far side. It speaks of the unknowable, the distant and the elusive – and is especially ripe for metaphor. For Pink Floyd, the moon’s dark side was used to symbolise the darker forces of human nature on an album that delved into unusual territories for pop: mental illness, mortality and the scars of the second world war. As songwriter Roger Waters explained in the 1994 book Bricks in the Wall: “The line ‘I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon’ is me speaking to the listener, saying, ‘I know you have these bad feelings and impulses because I do too, and one of the ways I can make direct contact with you is to share with you the fact that I feel bad sometimes.’” Continue reading...

Chang’e 4 will test soil composition, try to grow plants, and listen for traces of Big BangWhen we look up at the full moon, we only ever see one face: the “man in the moon” is always gazing back at us. Scientists believe that the far side, eternally hidden from view, may hold the key to fundamental mysteries about the moon’s formation and its earliest history.China’s Chang’e 4 mission could reveal new clues to the cataclysmic collision that created the moon and uncover the origins of the water that is unexpectedly abundant in lunar soil. Continue reading...

Two skull-like stone carvings and a stone trunk depicting the Flayed Lord were found during excavation in Puebla stateMexican experts say they have found the first temple of the Flayed Lord, a pre-Hispanic fertility god depicted as a skinned human corpse.Related: Conquistadors sacrificed and eaten by Aztec-era people, archaeologists say Continue reading...

With its Chang’e 4 landing, China has eclipsed US and Russian achievements. Expect them to take fresh interest in the moonChina’s achievement in landing a spacecraft on the far side of the moon, announced by Beijing’s state media this morning, has ramifications that go far beyond the simple statement of this being a “first” for mankind. It puts China on the map of international space exploration on a par with the existing space powers of the United States and Russia – the European Union to a lesser extent – but also adds a new dimension. It is the first time a landing has been attempted on the far side of the moon, with the particular communications challenges this entails, and it has been a success.The first response from the US space agency, Nasa, was generous, as scientists to scientists: what China had managed was a “first for humanity and an impressive accomplishment”. The response in political and military quarters in Washington, as in Moscow, however, is likely to reflect trepidation. There is now a serious newcomer to be considered. Continue reading...

A Chinese spacecraft has made the first landing on the far side of the moon, touching down in the South Pole-Aitken basin. The mission aims to take detailed measurements of the moon’s terrain and mineral composition

Lander sends back first close-up shot of previously unexplored side of the moon

Chang’e 4 will explore giant crater, possibly offering more clues as to moon’s formationA Chinese spacecraft could shortly become the first ever to land on the “far side” of the moon, in a milestone for human space exploration. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) is aiming to land the craft in the unexplored South Pole-Aitken basin, the largest, oldest, deepest, crater on the moon’s surface.Early reports of a successful landing by the robotic probe, Chang’e 4, ended in confusion after state-run media China Daily and CGTN deleted tweets celebrating a successful mission. China Daily’s tweet said: '“China’s Chang’e 4 landed on the moon’s far side, inaugurating a new chapter in mankind’s lunar exploration history.” Continue reading...

Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft has beamed home its first close-up images of Ultima Thule, a lump of rock the shape of an unfinished snowman that lies 4bn miles away on the edge of the solar system.The excited scientists of the New Horizons team led by principal investigator Alan Stern discuss their findings so far. 'We could not be happier,' he said. Continue reading...

Major study at Addenbrooke’s hospital could lead to cancer detectors in GPs’ surgeriesA breathalyser test that could revolutionise cancer diagnosis is being tested in the UK. The Breath Biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients.Scientists hope it will lead to a simpler, cheaper method of spotting cancers early. The breathalyser has the potential to save thousands of lives and millions of pounds in healthcare costs, its developers have claimed. Continue reading...

Images of rock on the edge of the solar system were taken on the most distant flyby in historyNasa’s New Horizons spacecraft has beamed home its first close-up images of Ultima Thule, a lump of rock the shape of an unfinished snowman that lies 4 billion miles away on the edge of the solar system.Taken as the probe sped past the body in the early hours of New Year’s Day, the pictures reveal a dark reddish object about 21 miles long and 10 miles wide that spins on its axis once every 15 hours or so. The colour image of Ultima Thule, revealing its reddish tint, was taken at 05.01 GMT on New Year’s Day from a distance of about 18,000 miles, 30 minutes before the probe made its closest pass of the space rock. Continue reading...

Missions like Nasa’s flyby of Ultima Thule, and China’s to place a lander on the far side of the moon, are more than a triumph of technologySome things are almost too extraordinary to comprehend. Take what is almost the smallest and simplest measurement from the New Horizons space probe which has just passed Ultima Thule: it is travelling at 32,000 miles an hour, a speed that is more than 50 times faster than anyone alive on Earth has travelled – unless they are a military pilot or an astronaut. In fact, it’s close to magic: Puck boasts in A Midsummer Night’s Dream that he can girdle the Earth in 40 minutes; New Horizons could do it in 50. This is not an easy speed at which to control anything. Yet, while moving that fast, and so far from Earth that it takes radio signals, travelling at the speed of light, more than six hours to reach it, the probe has been flown within 2,400 miles of a lump of rock 20 miles long which is itself hurtling through space in an orbit it has kept since before the Earth was formed.As Nasa announced the mission’s success, China was attempting to place a lander on the far side of the moon to help to decide whether a radio telescope could some day be built there, entirely screened from the interference of earthly civilisation. Nasa has already managed to put another spacecraft in orbit around a tiny asteroid, only 500m in diameter and much closer to Earth than Ultima Thule: the plan here is to land on the rock, collect samples, and return with them to Earth by 2023. There are two Nasa probes on Mars, sending back a stream of data, videos, and even the sounds of the wind on an alien planet. Space exploration demands extraordinary technologies, and has helped to produce some of them. But it also requires extraordinary human qualities: for astronauts, great bravery, but for everyone, ingenuity, imagination, discipline, and even a sort of altruism. The scientists and engineers, and the astronauts themselves, all need to work for decades for little material reward: New Horizons will bring nothing back but knowledge. There is nothing to exploit in the outer reaches of the solar system, just the boundless satisfaction of understanding the universe a little bit better. Continue reading...

Magicians are under fire for claiming they use neurolinguistic programming to read people’s mindsSome psychologists are upset at the deployment of purported scientific techniques in magic tricks, according to the Times.The newspaper cites a study (paywall) co-authored by Gustav Kuhn, a reader in psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, in which a group of people watched a magic trick. Those who knew that the performer was a magician were as likely to believe his false claims about being able to read a person’s mind as those who were told he was a psychologist. Yet according to Kuhn, the neurolinguistic programming (NLP) techniques claimed by some magicians – in which facial cues and body language can be read – is “complete pseudoscience”. So how do magicians feel about this? Continue reading...

Scientists celebrate probe’s successful completion of most distant space flyby in history

‘The Nation’s T rex’ will stand upright for the first time in 66m years alongside 720 specimens as part of a five-year overhaul“He’s decapitating a Triceratops,” Siobhan Starrs observes casually. “You want drama with the T rex. We’ll give it to you.”The gory scene, worthy of Jurassic Park, is frozen in time in the 31,000sq-ft fossil hall at the popular Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, which reopens to the public on 8 June after a massive overhaul spanning five years and costing $125m. Continue reading...

Nasa sampling mission skims a mile above tiny asteroid Bennu where it will try to land and collect samplesThe Nasa spacecraft Osiris-Rex has gone into orbit around an ancient asteroid, setting a pair of records.Osiris-Rex spacecraft entered orbit on Monday around Bennu, 70m miles (110m kilometres) from Earth. It is the smallest celestial body ever to be orbited by a spacecraft, at just 500 metres across (1,600ft). Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you the following puzzles about the number 20191) Date jam Continue reading...

Calculations to kick-start the new yearUPDATE: To read the solutions click here.To welcome the New Year, we’re going to celebrate the number 2019. Here’s one numerical factoid readers may find charming:2019 is the smallest number that can be written in 6 ways as the sum of the squares of 3 primes:

Newly knighted cancer scientist Mel Greaves explains why a cocktail of microbes could give protection against diseaseMel Greaves has a simple goal in life. He is trying to create a yoghurt-like drink that would stop children from developing leukaemia.The idea might seem eccentric; cancers are not usually defeated so simply. However, Professor Greaves is confident and, given his experience in the field, his ideas are being taken seriously by other cancer researchers. Continue reading...

Modern high-intensity workouts are seductively short – but do they offer the same life-extending benefits as established exercise regimes?Is it boom time for the fitness business? One in seven people in the UK is believed to be a member of a gym, 2018 saw the number of gyms exceed 7,000 for the first time, and by 2022 the private health and fitness club market alone is predicted to be worth a whopping £3.9bn. Such is the demand for workout spaces that the Financial Times wondered: “Is gym the new pub?” Continue reading...

It’s no easy task for parents, but there are ways to start this crucial conversation“If you had a question about sex, where would you go?” I ask my 12-year-old daughter, Orla. She doesn’t look up from her phone. “I’d ask online,” she deadpans. “then delete my browser history.”“You wouldn’t come to me?” I venture, worried, hurt, amused and (a tiny part) relieved. “Mum, if I asked you about sex, I’d then have to imagine you having sex and that would be traumatic for me,” is the answer I get back. Continue reading...